Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
Grade Level: 6-8
Curriculum Focus: Animals
Lesson Duration: Three class periods
Program Description
Oceans: Cradle of Life—Explores how organisms developed in Earth’s oceans. The Bloom of
Plants—Examines how plants survive and reproduce. Insects: Master Adapters—Examines how
insects have adapted to survive for billions of years. The Wild Side of Dogs—Explores how dogs
evolved from wolves.
Onscreen Questions
Segments 1 & 2, Oceans: Cradle of Life and The Bloom of Plants (9 min.)
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How have oceans promoted life on planet Earth?
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How are a plant’s activities similar to those of animals?
Segments 3 & 4, Insects: Master Adapters and The Wild Side of Dogs (39 min.)
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How are adaptations important for survival?
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What environmental challenges cause animals to develop adaptations?
Lesson Plan
Student Objectives
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Understand why humans domesticated wolves.
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Learn how dogs have been bred and trained to help humans.
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Write a report about how dogs perform a particular task. Identify learned and inherited
behaviors.
Materials
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Adapting to the World video and VCR, or DVD and DVD player
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Computer with Internet access
Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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Print resources about the history of dogs, service dogs, police dogs, and other dogs that help
people
Procedures
1. Review with the class how dogs evolved from wolves. What were some reasons that humans
domesticated wolves? Discuss examples from the video of early ways that dogs were
domesticated. (Maremmas were domesticated as herders; basset hounds were trained to be
hunters.) Ask students to think of other ways in which dogs have helped humans throughout
history.
2. Ask students to brainstorm ways in which dogs are trained to help people today. Record their
responses. Examples include:
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Guide dogs for the blind
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Hearing dogs for the deaf
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Service dogs for the physically disabled
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Police dogs that detect drugs or bombs
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Sled dogs that provide transport in Arctic regions
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Guard dogs that protect property
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Army Scout dogs that warn of danger
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Detect termites in buildings
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Detect fire accelerants
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Comfort hospital patients
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Locate victims at disaster sites
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Herd sheep and cattle
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Detect certain cancers in humans
3. Ask students to choose one way that dogs help humans. Challenge them to learn more about
how dogs perform this task. Have them consider these questions: How do the dogs help
humans? How are dogs trained to perform this task? What kinds of breeds are used for this
task? What qualities make this breed (or dogs in general) suited for this task?
4. Have students research the training they have chosen using print and Web resources. The
following Web sites are a good starting point:
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Extraordinary Dogs: Stories
http://www.thirteen.org/extraordinarydogs/stories.html
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Guide Dogs of America: Training
http://www.guidedogsofamerica.org/training.html
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Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. (see “Guide Dog Training”)
http://www.guidedogs.com/
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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Dogs for the Deaf, Inc. (see “Our Dogs”)
http://www.dogsforthedeaf.org/
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Assistance Dogs International Inc. (see links about guide dogs, hearing dogs, and service
dogs)
http://www.adionline.org/
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Sled Dogs: An Alaskan Epic
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/sleddogs/
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International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (see “Educate”)
http://www.iaadp.org/
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Yahooligans: Service Dog Links
http://www.yahooligans.com/science_and_nature/living_things/animals/mammals/dogs/Service_Dogs/
5. When students have completed their initial research, ask them to summarize their findings in a
one-page report.
6. Have students choose a partner. Ask them to share their report with their partner and answer
any questions. Then have each student summarize their partner’s report for the class, including
at least three interesting facts.
Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students' work during this lesson.
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3 points: Students were highly engaged in class discussions; produced a complete report,
including all of the requested information; accurately summarized their partner’s report and
cited three interesting, relevant points.
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2 points: Students participated in class discussions; produced an adequate report, including
most of the requested information; satisfactorily summarized their partner’s report and
cited two relevant points.
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1 point: Students participated minimally in class discussions; created an incomplete report
with little or none of the requested information; were not able to summarize their partner’s
report or recall any interesting, relevant points.
Vocabulary
breed
Definition: A group of animals or plants presumably related by descent from common ancestors
Context: Some dog breeds are well suited for specialized tasks.
domesticate
Definition: To adapt to living with humans and serving their needs; to train an animal to live
with and serve humans
Context: Humans have domesticated dogs to serve in many ways, including hunting, herding,
protecting, and assisting the disabled.
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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guide dog
Definition: A dog that helps the blind and the visually impaired
Context: One important role for a guide dog is to help his blind partner to walk safely and avoid
obstacles and oncoming traffic.
hearing dog
Definition: A dog that assists the deaf and hard of hearing
Context: Hearing dogs are trained to alert people to a ringing telephone, fire alarm, or other
household sounds.
police dog
Definition: A dog trained to help police
Context: Some police dogs are trained to sniff out illegal drugs, while others are trained to detect
bombs.
service dog
Definition: A dog that helps people with physical disabilities
Context: Service dogs can help their disabled partners with many everyday tasks, such as
opening doors and turning on lights.
sled dog
Definition: A dog trained to pull a sled
Context: Sled dogs pull mushers in the annual Iditarod Race in Alaska.
Academic Standards
National Academy of Sciences
The National Science Education Standards provide guidelines for teaching science as well as a
coherent vision of what it means to be scientifically literate for students in grades K-12. To view the
standards, visit http://books.nap.edu.
This lesson plan addresses the following science standards:
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Life Science: Regulation and behavior; Diversity and adaptations of organisms
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
McREL's Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education
addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visit http://www.mcrel.org/.
This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:
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Science—Life Sciences: Understands biological evolution and the diversity of life
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Language Arts—Viewing: Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret
visual media
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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Support Materials
Develop custom worksheets, educational puzzles, online quizzes, and more with the free teaching tools
offered on the Discoveryschool.com Web site. Create and print support materials, or save them to a
Custom Classroom account for future use. To learn more, visit
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http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html
DVD Content
This program is available in an interactive DVD format. The following information and activities are
specific to the DVD version.
How To Use the DVD
The DVD starting screen has the following options:
Play Video—This plays the video from start to finish. There are no programmed stops, except by
using a remote control. With a computer, depending on the particular software player, a pause
button is included with the other video controls.
Video Index—Here the video is divided into four parts (see below), indicated by video thumbnail
icons. Watching all parts in sequence is similar to watching the video from start to finish. Brief
descriptions and total running times are noted for each part. To play a particular segment, press
Enter on the remote for TV playback; on a computer, click once to highlight a thumbnail and read
the accompanying text description and click again to start the video.
Curriculum Units—These are specially edited video segments pulled from different sections of the
video (see below). These nonlinear segments align with key ideas in the unit of instruction. They
include onscreen pre- and post-viewing questions, reproduced below in this Teacher’s Guide. Total
running times for these segments are noted. To play a particular segment, press Enter on the TV
remote or click once on the Curriculum Unit title on a computer.
Standards Link—Selecting this option displays a single screen that lists the national academic
standards the video addresses.
Teacher Resources—This screen gives the technical support number and Web site address.
Video Index
I. Oceans: Cradle of Life (4 min.)
Scientists believe that all life on this planet began as ocean-dwelling, unicellular organisms.
Studying fossils provides evidence about the prehistoric organisms that lived in the oceans.
II. The Bloom of Plants (5 min.)
Time-lapse footage of plant life shows how plants can be aggressive when it comes to their own
growth and survival.
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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III. Insects: Master Adapters (3 min.)
With simple adaptations over the course of millions of years, insects have become masters of
survival. Learn about the diverse and resilient world of insects.
IV. The Wild Side of Dogs (36 min.)
Though they now are bred and trained for specific functions, domestic dogs are what they have
always been—wild. Take a closer look at the evolution and history of our four-legged friends.
Curriculum Units
1. Earth’s Earliest Cells
Pre-viewing question
Q: How do you think early organisms could breathe without oxygen?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What are unicellular organisms?
A: Unicellular organisms are organisms made up of one cell. They are the simplest forms of life.
2. Learning About Early Life
Pre-viewing question
Q: What kinds of fossils have you seen and where have you seen them?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What are fossils?
A: Fossils are remnants of organisms that have been preserved in rock or other materials. Scientists
study fossils to learn about early life on Earth.
3. How Plants Grow
Pre-viewing question
Q: What kinds of plants seem to grow best in your neighborhood and why?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What is tropism?
A: Tropism is the growth response toward or away from a stimulus. Plant tropisms include touch,
light, gravity, or water. A plant growing toward a stimulus shows a positive tropism. A plant
growing away from a stimulus shows a negative tropism.
4. Pollination
Pre-viewing question
Q: What do seeds need so they can grow?
A: Light, water, and space
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
Post-viewing question
Q: What is pollination?
A: Pollination is the joining of the nuclear material in a plant’s sperm cell and egg cell. Pollination
takes place when a male plant transfers its sperm, or pollen, to the egg-producing part of a female
plant.
5. The World of Insects
Pre-viewing question
Q: Why do you think giant insects became smaller over time?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What are some common attributes of all insects?
A: Insects are arthropods: They have three body sections, six legs, one pair of antennae, and one or
two pairs of wings. They are invertebrates, with exoskeletons on the outside of their bodies.
6. Domesticating the Wolf
Pre-viewing question
Q: When do dogs appear to be most like wild animals?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: How do you think wolves became domesticated?
A: Answers will vary.
7. Global Domestication
Pre-viewing question
Q: Why do humans domesticate animals?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What are some things that dogs are used for?
A: Dogs can be pets, guard dogs, or helpers for people who use wheelchairs or are visually
impaired.
8. Dogs, Coyotes, and Wolves
Pre-viewing question
Q: How do dogs, wolves, and coyotes resemble one another?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What is imprinting?
A: Imprinting refers to a newborn animal instinctively being attracted to the first animal it sees—
either of its own kind or a substitute identified as the parent.
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Adapting to the World: Teacher’s Guide
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9. Relatives of the Dog
Pre-viewing question
Q: In what ways are foxes similar to wolves and dogs?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Why can dogs digest fruits and vegetables?
A: Dogs are carnivores, but an adaptation allows them to digest vegetables and fruit. They have a
grinding surface behind the cutting edge of their molars that allows them to chew fruits and
vegetables.
10. Canid Communities
Pre-viewing question
Q: How do dogs communicate with one another?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What were some domestic breeds originally bred to do?
A: Poodles were bred as duck hunters. Basset hounds were bred with long ears that help them pick
up the scent of wild game from the ground and move it to their noses. Irish wolfhounds and
Afghan hounds were bred to hunt prey such as wolves and rabbits.
11. Working Dogs
Pre-viewing question
Q: What is the most amazing thing you’ve seen a dog do?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Of the dog jobs shown, which do you think would be the most difficult?
A: Answers will vary.
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.